The Death of Padre Wasson

Today's an important day in the history of NPH. Six years ago, the priest who founded the organization passed away. He's still a huge part of daily life here; all the kids say daily prayers thanking him, his picture is hanging all over the place and there's a large statue of him as you walk through the gates. The kids are all really serious about Padre Wasson, and truly appreciate the help he's given them. Every year they put together a large celebration to commemorate his death. Each department is in charge of putting together a mural in honor of his memory and what's he's done for NPH, then a group of judges chooses the best one to win a trophy. It's a serious trophy too! Check this out:

Here's second place, a picture of Padre Wasson meeting the Pope.

When we were planning out what we wanted to do for our mural, I thought we were over doing it. They wanted to make a giant Virgin Mary our of fruit. I was thinking more along the lines of a poster. Apparently murals are WAY more intricate here, something I realized once the day of the contest came. We had to go to the cafeteria early to set up. Here we are in the construction stage of everything

We had one of those incense thingies from church to use. It was such a pain trying to get the chains untangled. Note to others: when using one of these, it's best to untangle it BEFORE adding flaming charcoal inside

Here is a picture of the Virgin Mary done with painted rice! Pretty cool

And the finished product

Here's the Mary part of the mural. We collected the eucalyptus and pine from behind the cafeteria. Hooray for free materials :)

Our smoke effects in action

The entry from the therapy department

From the workshop staff

From the office staff

And the crazy submission from the directors of the houses

One of the kids painted this, really great

They really went all out. This is done with colored saw dust and a stencil

Padre Wasson started the organization when a boy in Mexico stole money from the donation box in church. The boy was arrested and Padre Wasson visited him in jail. The boy explained that he stole the money because he was hungry and needed food. Padre W asked the guards for permission to take the boy to live in the church, which they happily agreed to. A few weeks later, the guards showed up at the church with a group of other children that had also been arrested for small crimes related to them being homeless and orphaned. NPH grew from there, and our Mexican house remains one of the largest with over 1,000 children.

My buddy Jullian comes to visit

And the Montessori kids were obviously impressed by our hard work

Jack and Adele having a good time together

Jack, Alvaro and me hanging out

Vilma (manager of the special needs house), Lisette (nurse), Alvaro, Eliza (the dentist and my housemate), Vicki (nurse), Adela (nurse) and Tia Rosa

It was a nice day and a fun way to celebrate. There was a two way tie for first place between the office staff and the house directors (no big surprise) but we came in fourth place which is actually pretty great :)